Petra Ernyei Quartet

Petra Ernyei - singer, Adam Tvrdý - Guitar, Petr Dvorský - Double bass, Aliaksandr Yasinski - Accordion

"Jazz and Jewish songs"

Guided tour of Volman Villa 16:00

Show starts at 17:00

Program:

George Gershwin, Dubose Heyward

Summertime (from the opera Porgy and Bess)

Los bilbilicos / Nightingales

(Traditional Sephardic song)

Michel Legrand, Alan, and Marylin Bergmann

Papa Can You Hear Me?

(song from the movie Yentl )

Scalerica De Oro / Little Golden Ladder

(Traditional Sephardic wedding song)

Harold Arlen, Yip Harburg

Over The Rainbow

(song from the movie The Wizard of Oz)

Naomi Shemer

Yerushalaimshelzahav / Jerusalem of Gold

Hine ma tov u-ma na'im / What Good, what Welfare

(Psalm 133:1)

Drum, drum / Spinkej, spinkej

(Sephardic lullaby)

"When I close my eyes, I see a little girl running between the dining tables at the Jewish Community in Prague. She enthusiastically helps a curly-haired waitress distribute lunches. She receives smiles and caresses from the old men who are seated. Above the entrance to the dining room hangs a photo of Barbra Streisand, who filmed the movie Yentl in Prague in 1983, in which the then little Petra played as an extra. Home smells of pancakes from mom and everywhere there are musicians and dad with a banjo, and I dance and sing and sense that I will always sing…," says singer Petra Ernyei.

Petra Ernyei was born in Prague, her mother a Czech and her father born in England to Hungarian-Slovak parents. She grew up in a musical environment and at the age of 18, she made her first international engagement in the USA at a jazz festival in Sacramento, California. Her singing journey has so far been jazz-oriented (Original Prague Syncopated Orchestra, Prague Swing Orchestra, Petra Ernyei Quartet). Meeting the descendants of the extraordinary personality Doris Grozdanovičová, a Holocaust survivor, was crucial. Petra was asked to sing Jewish songs at her funeral. This inspired Petra to delve more into Jewish music. She performed a program of songs by Jewish authors in synagogues across the Czech Republic as part of the project 10 Stars. In June 2023, she sang at a music festival at the Jewish Center in Vancouver, Canada.

In 2020, she released a CD titled "To jsem já" (This Is Me), dedicated to Jewish authors. It features traditional Hebrew songs, Sephardic, and jazz songs, and also a tribute to singer Barbra Streisand. On the album, she is accompanied by top musicians – guitarist Adam Tvrdý, bassist Petr Dvorský, and accordionist Aliaksandr Yasinski. With these artists, she will perform at the Volman Villa as part of the Everlasting Hope festival.

In the Petra Ernyei Quartet program titled "Songs of Jewish Authors," a new composition inspired by the poems of Ilse Weber, composed specifically for the Everlasting Hope festival, will also be performed.